Here’s the Ticket!
Monster Drop – Balls Jam on Belt Lift
Ray Dachik, Game Technician/Manager – Alpha-Omega Amusements
The balls jamming as they ride up the lift belt is an annoying high frequency problem that needs to be repaired once and for all. Monster Drop (1 player, 2 player, & Extreme) are all high earning games.
One ball jam causes the belt to twist and repeatedly drop the balls back to the next pickup saddle. The cause is that the upper and lower lift belt pulleys are not positioned so that the left side of the lift belt will run parallel to the left sidewall. Note that the lower pulley has a smaller diameter than the upper pulley, and should have originally been mounted slightly to the left of its current position.
Instead Benchmark added ½ of a belt guide closest to the ball lift point, but ½ of a guide is not quite wide enough as the belt is still able to twist slightly and drop the ball back. As the belt twists it flips out of the ½ belt guide.
I initially tried to increase the diameter of the lower pulley by enlarging the distance between the 3 spacing bars on the lower plexiglass pulley from 1” to 1.5”, but this did not draw the lift belt close enough to the left sidewall at the bottom point. However, it did take a lot of the slack out of the belt.
Next I inserted a tensioned at the bottom, made from a 3/8” diameter 5” long bolt, inserted through a core sleeve left over from a ticket eater paper roll. [I save these rolls because they are very useful in situations like this]. The tensioner keeps the belt parallel to the sidewall for the entire ride up the wall and at the same time reduces any twisting force where the ½ belt guide is positioned.
Another potential solution might be to move the mounting axle for the lower pulley about an inch to the left and move the drive motor assembly to the left the same distance. However, this looked to be more difficult and I was very happy with my original solution. So far, we have not had a ball jam for this past month.
Cleaning a Water Redemption Game
Tony Bari, Warehouse Mgr./Technician, Alpha-Omega Amusements
Thoroughly cleaning and flushing the pump filter and fittings once per year goes a long way to keeping the water clean and reducing maintenance time for the next several months. Pull the pump out of the game and remove/clean and flush out all of the fittings and the pump filter. I highly recommend using a product called CLR, which is excellent for removing calcium, lime, and rust build-up. CLR and fresh water are then run through the game for several cycles, draining after each cycle, until the water flow is clean. CLR can be purchased at Home Depot, a 28 oz. bottle costs $6.00. We use Novus #2 and #3 plastic polish to remove the calcium built-up on the plexiglass and plastic components. Note: When putting the pump fittings back together, make sure to use thread tape to insure water tight connections and also make it easier to thread the connections together. A roll of thread tape is usually under $2.00. A clean and sparkling water game does earn more revenue. And make sure your game technician has a line item on the weekly maintenance checklist to add a chlorine tablet once a week to each water redemption game (per manufacturer’s recommendations).
Where is the Toto Card?…It is in the Knock It Off Rotary
Edwin Rodriquez, Alpha-Omega Technician
To add more excitement, our Team decided to add another dimension of play to the Knock It Off Rotary. A Toto card (from the Wizard of Oz 6 Player game) was placed on top of the 1000 ticket circular form, that is the highest value form on the playfield of the Knock It Off Rotary. Our Toto card is valued at 4700 tickets.
The idea was to see if we could further increase the revenues of the Knock It Off Rotary and move it up from #3 overall to #2 overall. That is what happened during the first week. Four players would work as a ‘team’ to go after the Toto card ticket form, which is fairly difficult. We were amazed that the buzz throughout the game room was ‘Where is the Toto card?’ And play on our Wizard of Oz (#1 ranking) increased as well. We are all excited that we can cross promote these two games and will be trying new cross promotion combinations between other games. Check out the Test Games Spreadsheet and review each game’s revenues and win %.
Benchmark Games – How to Clear Forgotten Password
Ramon Vivar, Master Tech, Alpha-Omega Amusements
A password is required to access the programming mode for all of the newer model Benchmark Games. The default password of ‘0000’ is factory set. However, a technician who is not familiar with a Benchmark game could accidentally push the wrong buttons and inadvertently punch in a new password and not realize it. This happened with one of the Benchmark games that we supplied to Vietnam that required a price/play change and other difficulty level programming changes.
When this happens, the programming mode cannot be accessed and the situation appears to be hopeless. Luckily we have had this problem occur in the past and discovered that the code ‘4393’ can be used to override any password. Once you gain access, I advise that you put back the factory default password of ‘0000’. Changing the password is not a good idea as technicians change and passwords are often forgotten. The industry is thankful that a Benchmark programmer put in this special override code.
